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Explore new best practices in communications

It's more than talk
After a decade of meteoric growth, the telecom industry now faces mounting challenges. Not least of which is a need for telcos to rethink their identities as communication service providers (CSPs).

The reason is change. Personal communication technology has evolved from a way to stay in touch into entertainment on demand, an office wherever you go, and social networks and streaming media as constant companions. Industries and municipalities are also coming up with new ways to improve lives using broadband. Simply put, healthcare, education, utilities and other vital services will never be the same, thanks to creative thinking and high-speed data transfer.

On a smarter planet, almost anything can become digitally aware, instrumented and interconnected. We have the connections, processors, analytics and capabilities powerful enough for trillions of devices to talk to each other and improve the way the world works.

A busy signal is not an option
The infrastructure's need to grow up and the communications providers need to keep up come at great struggle when you consider that worldwide consumer broadband connections are predicted to increase 7.9% from 367.6 million in 2008 to 498.8 million in 2012.

Realizing the potential of smarter communication technology will require the infusion of new capabilities and models into our systems to make it easier for devices to transmit and interpret data, provide more secure connections, and protect identities. And new ways for traditional communications providers to stay strong and relevant-for example, through moving into adjacent markets (telemediacy) such as healthcare and transportation, and maintaining the backbone for two-way smart utility meters, to name two.

10 Essentials for CSPs to succeed with cloud-based services
"Of all the players in the nascent cloud services market...communications services providers are the best positioned to successfully deliver on the cloud vision." —Stratecast, a division of Frost & Sullivan

Episode 6: Smart Education
With modern communications technology and the increasing availability of broadband access, we have the opportunity to make education available to just about everyone on earth.

Extending broadband's reach
Through online electronic health records, remote monitoring of vital statistics and on-demand transmission of patient data, medical facilities and patients alike are finding that broadband can help save time, money and lives-especially when the communications infrastructure is extended to rural areas that aren't served by a local hospital or clinic. Billions in healthcare spending on eldercare and the chronically ill could be saved through the use of telemedicine, which reduces the need for onsite visits, hospitalization and assisted-living care.

National and local governments worldwide are shoring up their communications infrastructures by devoting millions to stronger, more extensive broadband availability. For example, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) provides US$7.2 billion in grants, loans, and loan guarantees to deploy broadband infrastructure in unserved and underserved areas, and encourage development of distance learning and telemedicine. And the Australian government is sponsoring the National Broadband Network (NBN), an AUS$43 billion fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) network meant to provide 100 MBps broadband access to 90% of Australians over the next eight years.